1 Corinthians 15

So we're gonna be reading verse 1 to 34 of 1 Corinthians 15. Now brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel, you are saved if you hold firmly to the word I preach to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received, I passed on to you as of first importance that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures that he was buried that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures and that he appeared to cephas and then to the 12.

After that, he appeared to more than 500 of the brothers and sisters at the same time. Most of whom are still living. Though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all of the apostles, and last of all, he appeared to me also as to 1 abnormally born. For I am the least of the apostles, and do not even deserve to be called an apostle because I acuted the church of god.

But by the grace of god, I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No. I worked harder than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of god that was within me. Whether then, it is I or they This is what we preached, and this is what you believed. But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, How can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless, and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about god for we have testified about god that he raised Christ from the dead, but he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile you are still in your sins.

Then those who also have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life, we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead. The first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.

For as in Adam, all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in turn, Christ the first fruits, then when he comes, those who belong to him. Then the end will come. When he hands over the kingdom to god the father after he has destroyed all Dominican authority and power. For he must rein until he has put all his enemies under his feet.

The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For he has put everything under his feet. Now when it says that everything has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include god himself. Who put everything under Christ. When he has done this, then the son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him so that god may be all in all.

Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them? And as for us, why do we endanger ourselves every hour I face death every day. Yes. Just as surely as I boast about you in Christ Jesus, our lord.

If I fought wild beasts in ephesus with no more than human hopes, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised, let a seat and drink for tomorrow, we die. Do not be misled. Bad company corrupts good character. Come back to your senses as you ought and stop sinning.

For there are some who are ignorant of God. I say this to your shame. Let me pray as we begin. Father, thank you, for another opportunity to spend time in this this wonderful chapter. Thank you for what it reminds us of what you've done.

And we pray father that, that tonight we will, understand once again, that it is totally worth following you. And so he prayed this in Jesus' name. Oh, man. So I I think, throughout our lives, not just I think I think I think we all know that throughout our lives, we're faced with all sorts of decisions. All sorts of everyday work were faced with many, many decisions, made choices to make.

And as those decisions sort of come to us. We I think we often have to ask ourselves. Is it worth it? Is it worth it? You know, it's, I think, a common question.

You gotta weigh up the cons, you gotta weigh up the pros, and you've gotta make a decision based on whether you think it's worth it or not. I I think you'll you'll find out with everything when you're saying buying something. So say I'm I go to the shop as I often do, I'm a big fan of shopping. Can tell, fashion guru. And I I go I go into, Primark because that's all fashion gurus do that.

And I see a t shirt, I think, is it worth buying this this amazing t shirt? Now I would go down the Anne Woodcock route. This is what she taught me. Very wise woman. The amount of money you spend on it is the amount of wheres you get from it.

That's right, isn't it? So if I spend 15 pound on a t shirt, I should get 15 wears out of it if that's the case or more. So, of course, we should want more. A hundred and 15, then it would be worth buying. Or or say if I was gonna move house, I would have to make sure that there's no mold in the house, something we didn't do when we decided to purchase our our house.

And then breathe in mold for a few years, which made my asthma great. Or we wanna make sure it's structurally sound. It's got a lovely garden for the children to play in. It's on a nice neighborhood. Is it worth buying or not?

Or even if you think about the adverts, is it worth buying these? I I mean, the classic 1 who takes this strap line. It's it's the l'oreal adverts, isn't it? You've and it's it's ridiculous. I mean, I don't know if anyone buys it because you got this this woman just flicking her hair.

I'm like, look, as you can see here, so I've got long hair, and it's all shiny, and and it's reflecting light. And we're like, oh, lovely. And I said, oh, you you're worth it, and you're worth it. So buy it because it's worth it. Is it worth it?

The athlete has to weigh up whether it's worth going through the sacrifice and the training and the hard work. You know, is it worth running 500 k? I don't know. Here's here's what I really want us to focus on. Is it really worth following the lord Jesus Christ?

Is it worth it? And what do we base it on? See, I guess common here tonight on a Sunday, we're around people that we might like a little bit. We, you know, maybe not some, but we like most of each other. We're singing lovely hymns.

You know, we're hearing great things about god. It'd be quite easy to say, yeah, it's worth it. We're we're we're we're away on revive. Yeah. Oh, this is great.

What a lovely feeling Christian together. It's definitely worth it. But if you take a step back and take it out of the out of the church or revive or something like that, and you you think about the countries and the people in those countries that are being persecuted in the Middle East and in Africa who are being butchered or being persecuted for their faith. Then is it is it really worth it? Or if we if we if we, listen to the stories and revive, we hear 1 1 bloke that we that I know who's a missionary in Oman, and there's 20 out of 4 and a half million people who are Christians.

And you think, is it really worth it to go over there and tell people about Jesus? Or even think about the people in our church who who who gave their lives a life of gospel gospeling people and living the gospel out. I the 2 that spring to my mind are, Dave Redington and and Doug. And they gave their life. They served the church.

But was it worth it? You, as you, as you strive to be godly, as you face people being hostile towards the gospel and saying, why you why do you live like that? It's ridiculous. Why do you do those things? Why do you believe in that?

It's so rubbish. As you battle sin, is it worth it? Or maybe you're here, and you're like weighing up the options, whether or not you should commit to following the lord Jesus Christ. You're thinking, I'm not sure. Is it worth it?

But I wanna show you tonight through this passage that it is absolutely worth it. It is worth it. In fact, this is the only thing that is worth it. Over all world views, over all religions, over any belief other than this, it is worth it. And the reason it's worth it is because it's based on historical facts.

It's not based on myth. It's not based on just some random guess work, I think this might have happened. It's not based on mysticism, you know, oh, I think I feel like it might be this. I think that's what mystics do. I don't know.

No. It's based on true fact. It's based on the fact that the lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead. He rose from the dead. There's no other belief in the world like this.

No other religion has a belief like this. No other religion has a figure head. That rises from the dead and lives. You think about the other all the other the religions in the world. Islam.

The figurehead Mahamad is dead, and you can see his grave on your medina. Buddha dead? Think of all the political leaders, you know, the great we're the ones we hold up Winston Churchill. Dead? Nelson Mandela?

Dead? Franklin d roosevelt dead. They're all dead. But the lord Jesus, is alive. So last week, we did the first 11 verses this chapter.

And, we, we saw that Paul wanted to stress what was of first importance. He wanted to show people and remind people that the gospel is our first important, that Christ died, that he was buried And then most importantly, and what he kind of wanted to sort of focus on, that he rose again. He didn't stay in the grave. He's alive, and and and he stresses how important that is. Doesn't he?

He doesn't just go, and he rose again, and that's great. He says, he rose again, and here's the proof I've got proof for you. I've got evidence for you. Look at all the eyewitnesses. You can see them down there, can't you?

Versus 5 5 to 8. He's got loads of eyewitnesses who who see him, and then they preach this gospel despite being persecuted. See, there should be no doubt that crisis risen. No doubt it definitely happened. And it's foundational to the their beliefs, to the apostles' beliefs, to the message of Jesus.

So why is he making this point? What why is he talking about this? What what's going on here? Well, I I I said this last week, but if you look down at verse 12 again, you will see that it seems that there's a false teaching going on where people are saying there's no resurrection of the dead. They say, nope.

There's no resurrection of the dead. And I get I think the reason that they're saying this is because they're kind of in an intellectual age that they think they're intense and they like to talk about all these different ideas and all these different beliefs, about sort of what happens in the afterlife. But when it comes to resurrection, they didn't like that sort of stuff. So do you remember in acts chapter 17 and verse 32. Paul, goes to the church in, not the church goes to Athens.

And, he's telling about the gospel, and they're all like, oh, yeah. This is really intro. Oh, this is fun. Tell us a little bit more. Until he gets to verse 32 of chapter 17, and he tell and he tells them about the resurrection, and this is their response.

When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered. They sneeze. Resurrection. You must be having a laugh, Paul. There was loads of our there was loads of views about the afterlife this seemed ridiculous to them.

But actually, I think if you look in our age now, plenty of people think it's ridiculous now, right? You you talk to an atheist, they would dismiss this. They wouldn't wanna talk about it. They get rubbish. I I was, it's not even just outside.

It's it's meant to be within the church. You've got supposedly a third of anglican clergy do not believe in the in the resurrection of the lord Jesus Christ. I read an article just before coming out, a quarter of people, only a quarter of people who say they're a Christian believe, that there is a resurrection. And then just think about this in your own life. Okay.

So you might say, oh, yes. I I believe that the that the resurrection of the dead is happens. But does your life reflect that there is a resurrection? Is your life showing change transformation. See, Paul?

Has a problem with this. He says that if if you're saying there's no resurrection in verse 12, then you're saying that Jesus has not been raised from the dead. And it actually he's like, that is ridiculous, quite frankly. It's so ridiculous that someone could come up with this conclusion and that's why he's done his work in the first 11 verse. I've showed you.

This is really obvious. I've showed you the evidence. I've showed you the fact. It's obvious that the resurrection is true and it is foundational to our beliefs. That's what Paul's saying.

And he's saying that it makes everything worth it. This is what he now goes on to do. He then goes from here to show 1 what life if if there's no resurrect what life would be like. But if there is resurrection, what life is like? What are the consequences?

If there are no resurrection, what are the consequences if there is resurrection? So here's my first point. If there's no resurrection, it's not worth it. If there's no resurrection, it's not worth it. It's a bit like, I I'm sure you all heard the fantastic news.

I'm sure that you all agree that England 1 6 1. In the World Cup. I mean, I'm not English. I don't support them, and I know that makes pet people very angry. I apologize.

My mom's Scottish dad's Northern Irish. I have no affiliation with England, apart from the fact I was born here. Anyway, but Would it be worth playing in the World Cup if there was no trophy or winner at the end? Probably not. If some people love mountain hiking, I wanted the 3 peaks.

But but people actually like mountain climbing for the view. Great. Fair enough. But if you got to the top of the mountain and it was pitch black and you couldn't see a thing, would it have been worth going up? Probably not, I guess.

Sim, simpson doesn't go for the view, obviously. He's just there for the the for the ride. Or whatever. Maybe you'll piggy back in on someone I don't know. And this is how he begins his argument.

He said if there's no resurrection, that it's not worth it. If there's no resurrection he says, then Christ has not been raised. Look with me down at verse 13. If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And then again, look, at, verse 15.

More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about god for we have testified about god that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. And then again in verse 16. 4, if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. See, if you're gonna say that there is no resurrection of the dead, that we will not be risen again to life.

You're denying the fact that the lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead. I don't know if you, you notice as Tom read this. It's quite that verses 12 to 19. It's quite dark gloomy depressing. I don't know if you noticed it.

Look with me. Look at verse 14 to start with. This is this is the consequences if there is no resurrection. This is why it's not worth it. First 14, if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless, and so is your faith.

Our preaching is of no use whatsoever. Absolutely no use. And because our our preaching that we have done, as we've preached about Jesus, is of no use at all. That means your faith is useless too. It's of no it's it's a bit like the blind leading the blind.

It's a bit like, if I wanted to get to, I don't know, the place that pops into head, Chesington, and I didn't know the direction and I asked I don't know someone who said they did and they were like, yeah, I know the way. And then took me and we ended up in, I've wimbledon. That'll be that's what it's like. Is it I I don't know if you remember. If anyone watched the apprentice last year, last apprentice, there was this phenomenally bad yet good episode because that's what apprentices like.

Right? And they were in they were in bruges in Belgium. And they were the most useless people ever. And they were trying to get they were trying to get a crowd of people to a a an old hospital, an old infirmary. And they were walking around holding this.

They were meant to be the experts on the matter. And they were walking around the infirmary looking for it, and it was right there on the doorstep. And people were just following like, what's going on, but they were following them. And that's what it's like. The preaching is useless.

It's of no use. You're not gonna get to the final destination And if you put your faith in it, that's useless too. But there's more gloom and doom verse 15. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about god for we have testified about god that he did that he raised Christ on the debt. He's saying here, we as apostles were liars.

We've lied to you. We've actually told you that god raised Jesus Christ from the dead, And he didn't. And you've all put your faith in this, and a lot of you have been getting persecuted for it, and it was a lie. Sorry. But then it goes on verse 17.

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, you are still in your sins. Your faith is futile. You are still in your sins. See, if Christ is still in the grave, If Christ is still in his tomb, your faith that says Jesus will you save me? Jesus, will you cover my sins with your blood?

Will you be my righteousness, Jesus? That call to Jesus is rubbish because what it means is that you're still a sinner. What it means is that you still stand in the place of judgment that you are gonna receive the wrath of god, the righteous anger of god. And then verse 18, then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost, So not only that, but those people who have trusted in this in this Jesus who you've said has risen from the grave, those people there who have trusted it and died, well, actually, they're not okay, either they're gonna die and face judgment and hell. It's not a it's not a pretty picture.

You're gonna be in hell never to enjoy god forever because you put your trust in something that hasn't worked. And then Paul really, really keeps us going darker and darker and more gloomy. Look at what he says in verse. 19. If only for this life, we have hope in Christ.

We are of all people most to be pitied. See, I I I don't know if, anyone's heard of Pascal's wager Pascale was, I think he was a mathematician, but he was also a bit of a big thinker. His sort of, idea was that Okay. If there's a god, you might as well live for him because even if there isn't 1, it was probably a good life that you lived anyway. That's what he said.

But that doesn't go with what Paul says here, does it? No. He says, if this isn't true, If Jesus is not risen from the grave, then you should absolutely feel sorry for You should you should be looking at us with pity because You are not saved from your sin. You are living a life for someone who's dead, and you stand in the seat of judgment still. See, without Christ alive, we've got a pretty gloomy depressing picture here.

Right? But fortunately, it doesn't stop there. So here's my second point. Because of the resurrection, It is worth it. It's very simple tonight.

Because of the resurrection, it is worth it. So it is it is great that Paul doesn't end there. Now Paul comes in with a great big but. Okay? Verse 20.

Always when you see a but, it's usually good news. Following it when when the Bible does it. Right? But verse 20, Christ has indeed been raised from the dead. And then you get some glorious truths that contrast so starkly with the gloom of what we just saw.

So he starts with that sentence there that he has been raised, and that's really good news. Why? Well, look with me. Verse 20, second half of that to verse 23. Let's read from the start of verse 20, but Christ has indeed been raised from the dead.

The first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as an animal dies, I mean Christ all will be made alive, but each in turn Christ the first fruits, then when he comes, those who belong to him. Christ is the firstfruits. Now you might be thinking, what what are you talking about the firstfruits?

I haven't got a clue. Well, the first fruits is kind of an agricultural image. I know we we live in around here, and there's no farms to be seen. I don't think. And, but basically what the first fruit says, you you plant, a crop.

So there you go. You've gone out to your farm, you've scattered. You see it, I guess. You've planted your crop. Now we've gotta wait.

Now, the way that you know if you're gonna get a a lovely, I don't know, bumper crop I guess a load of wheat or barley or whatever you've planted. I don't know what you what you fancy. The way you know is because you get first fruits. You get the first fruit, something starts to grow. And when you see that that's grown, you know that there's more to come.

So this is what he's saying. He's saying that Jesus is the first for each. Jesus is the first 1 to be resurrected. And because he's resurrected, That means that more are gonna come and be resurrected to. He see see this.

He says death came through Adam So just as that happened as Adam fell from grace. As Adam said, no, actually god, I don't really fancy living for you. And in him all people die. I mean, that that is 1 true thing of every single person in this room today. A hundred percent of us will die.

Death comes through him. Every single person in the world has the same destination, which is death. That's the first time, but because of Christ, because of Christ, the second Adam as the Bible calls him. Because of Christ and what he does on the cross and takes the punishment that is our death. And because he doesn't stay in the grave, but he rises again, He can bring live to all who trust in him.

It's it's like he smashed a great big hole through the grave and there's just many people coming in them going, yep, we've been risen from the dead. I'd always think of it like, you know, the cartoons, you know, and then if someone runs through a wall, you've got a big hole of a shape of someone. Yeah. Well, that's kind of Jesus, and we're all sort of just walking through, like, yay, we're risen. A baby a lip, not like that.

Anyway, He smashed a hole through the grave. The tomb is empty. The stone is rolled away Jesus has walked out and we can follow to resurrection life. And so look, we can view death as just sleep. Did you see that?

Christ is indeed being raised from the dead, the first weeks of those who have fallen asleep. If we're Christians, we can view death, it's just sleep. It's quite a lovely picture, I think. It's just sleep. That's that's quite amazing, isn't it?

It was just when I die, I fall asleep, and I wake up, and I'm with Jesus. It's a bit like, John chapter 11. You know when, Lazarus has died, And Jesus comes to the tomb and he's like, oh, I'm and he knows what he's gonna do. And he says to Martha in, verse 25 to 26 Lazarus's Sisti says to her, I am the resurrection and the life. The 1 who believes in me will live even though they die.

And whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this? It's just sleep. That's why I think he probably says in verse 11, lazarus has fallen asleep. I'm gonna wake him up.

It's just sleep. The good news is is that the lord Jesus is gonna make all that trust in him alive. And when he returns, we will be raised, we will be raised bodily. And so With the knowledge of that, we know that, great. I know for sure that I will see David Redington in glory.

I know for sure that I will see doc in heaven. Hallelujah. But there's more. Look at look with me back at verse 23 to 26. But each in turn, Christ the first fruits, then when he comes, those who belong to him, then the end will come when he hands over the kingdom to god, the father, after he has destroyed all dominion, authority, and power.

For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. See that? He will destroy all enemies, all powers who are set up against him. I was reading what that word is.

It's like he will he will render them inoperative. It's like there's a machine and he just strikes it down and it could never work again. The enemies will never rise again. They will be destroyed. There will be justice.

He will he will come to his enemies, all who oppose him, and he will humble them. And they will bow before him, and they will say you are lords. And they will give glory to him the king. Who deserves the glory. And did you see what the very last enemy was?

Did you see it? Death itself. Death will be destroyed. No longer do we need to fear death? Even as Christian's death's quite a scary thing, right?

What what happens? The unknown in 1 sense. Don't need to fear it. There'll be no more of that. There'll be no more death.

In our lives. There'll be no more people that we know dying because that curse that we are all under has been dealt with. And then verse 27 to 28. For he has put everything under his feet Now when it says that everything has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include god himself. He put everything under Christ.

When he has done this, then the son himself will be made subject to him, he put everything under him so that god may be all in all. This is what it's for. It's all done to the glory of god. It's all done to the glory of the unchangeable triune glorious god. So there's glory.

We are gonna be raised with Jesus. He's gonna come back and we will be raised bodily. So is it worth it? I'd say so. Right?

Of course, it's worth it. Who doesn't want a place where we'll have no enemies against us will have no 1 slaughtering our brothers and sisters, where there's no more pain, where there's no more suffering, where there's no more frustration that people in our lives don't believe in the lord Jesus Christ. There'll be no more frustration that we constantly struggle with sin. There'll be noble death. Who doesn't want that?

That's worth it as far as I can see. So lastly, what are you gonna choose? What are you going to choose? So this is a choice that we're left with here. We can either trust that there is a resurrection of the dead or we can say actually, there isn't.

We can either say, yes. Christ is alive or we can say, actually, I'm gonna live like he's dead. Book me at verse 29 to 32. Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them?

And as for us, why do we endanger ourselves every hour? I face death every day. Yes. Just as surely as I boast about you in Christ Jesus, our lord. If I fought wild beasts in ephesus with no more than human hopes, what have I gained?

If the dead are not raised, Let us eat and drink for tomorrow, we die. Now verse 29, that that sounds a little bit confusing, right? You've got some people being baptized to the dead. And listen, there are a load of different interpretations about this, and I don't really wanna get into them. But what I do think we can learn from this is that this was done because people believed that there was a resurrection gonna happen.

They believe that the resurrection was true. Now if you take my first point, that Christ has not been raised, If you say, okay, Christ has not been raised, then all of the hardships, all of the sufferings, all of the hard work, all of the pain, that comes with living as a Christian, pointless, empty, meaningless. Right? Why be pure? Why be moral?

Why would you just follow a dead man's voice? You know, when people say, oh, he's had some great teaching. Well, he's dead. Why would that matter? If there's no resurrection, Paul should not have lived like he did.

He he's fighting wild beasts in episodes. I don't know if that's really wild, but like he's fighting a tiger or a bear or a lion or so nothing like that, or it's just really fierce opposition. But it's not easy. No. Listen, if if there's no resurrection, we might as well just jack it all in.

We might as well just scrap it. Right? And what we should do according to this verse is let's eat. Let's drink because tomorrow we're gonna die. In other words, renounce of faith.

Listen. What we should do now, why are we all like, it's stifling hot Right? People are tired, and we're all in church. Right? No resurrection.

Let's pack these tables up. Let's go home. Let's make some cheese and toast. Let's have a bit of flap jockey. Let's have a drink of wine.

And go to bed, marry, and then tomorrow we die. No resurrection. That's what we should do. Right? What you're saying?

Just let's go get drunk. Let's go have a good time. Let's live for ourselves. Let's live for the moment. That's such a gloomy picture verse 12 to 19 shown as that, but he has risen.

And if we believe this, if we believe that he is risen, if we keep remembering that he is risen, then it is worth it. All the suffering is worth it, all the pain, all the endurance, all the preaching. Means something. It's not worthless. Paul's hardships You can read a a massive list of all the stuff.

He goes through beatings and whippings and shipwrecks and all sorts of stuff. It's not worthless. It's not worthless. What you do now with this body is not worthless. It has eternal worth.

Why? Because we're gonna be raised again. We're gonna be raised again. So what are you gonna choose? Are you gonna reject the fact that Jesus rose again?

Because if you're gonna do that, if you're gonna reject the fact that Jesus rose again, you're gonna still be in your sin. You're not gonna be protected by the blood of the lord Jesus Christ. And therefore, if you're gonna reject that, you stand condemned. You stand condemned in front of a Holy God who will judge you. Listen to verse 33 to 34.

Do not be misled. Bad company corrupts good character. Come back to your senses as you ought and stop sinning for there are some who are ignorant of god. I say this to your shame. Paul is pleasing with you to turn from your sin and to trust in the lord Jesus Christ, the risen lord Jesus Christ.

If you're tempted to listen to false teachers, if you're tempted to follow others and live like there is no resurrection, if you're tempted to deny the resurrection of the lord Jesus Christ. Stop. Stop. Turn around. Go back to the lord Jesus Christ.

And Christian, is it worth it? Is it worth it? Revive. It was interesting. We heard about, people in in some countries being beheaded for being Christians.

We hear about, a few weeks ago, I, we talked about a local pastor Steven who's who's butchered for his faith. But before he's butchered for his faith, he's gotta watch his daughters and his wife be killed. Is it worth it? Is it worth it? Is it worth Dave and Doug just given their lives for Christ encouraging young men like myself and other people in the church serving us.

Is it worth it? Was it worth it? Was it worth it? Yes. Is it was it worth tariffs running 500 k?

What if there's no resurrection? Sorry, mate. No. But there is a resurrection. There is a resurrection.

Is is it worth my mate? Zach going to a place where there's only 20 Christians? Yes. It's worth it. Because there's a resurrection.

Is it worth living for Christ now despite all the temptations? Yes. There's a resurrection. Yes. Because he will be he he it's worth Dave and Doug.

It was worth it because they're gonna be raised again. And we're gonna live to glorify god, and it's worth it for us because we, too, will be raised again, and we will glorify god. And he will be he he will have us. He will he will keep us It is absolutely worth it. We must cling to the glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ We must remember that the lord Jesus rose again.

Yes, he died. But he didn't stay dead. He rose again. He promises to return. And so right now it matters how we live and it's worth living for him because there is a day when he comes back.

And when he comes back, he'll take us with him. And we will live with him forever. Let me pray. Father we Thank you that the lord Jesus did not stay dead. We thank you that he burst out the grave, that he did rise again and that you are returning and you will take us to be with you.

We thank you for this in Jesus' name, our, ma'am.